Introduction
The spread of COVID-19, a virus that first appeared in Wuhan, China, severely affected people and industries in the world (Xiao & Watson, 2019; Raj et al., 2022) and led to a reduced economic growth rate (Xiao & Watson, 2019) and the paralysis of the global economy (Smart et al., 2021). During the pandemic, companies around the world were forced to make fundamental changes in their strategies to maintain their survival and competitive position (Behl et al., 2023). Strategic decision-making in industries, especially food industries, at the time of crisis is of great interest (Bargoni et al., 2022). One of the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic was on the sustainability of agriculture or the food supply chain (production, processing, distribution, and consumption). During the pandemic in Iran, the food industry experienced major challenges in various fields such as timely supply, product safety, desired quality, etc. A study showed a decrease in the value of shares of food companies in the Tehran Stock Exchange during the COVID-19 crisis (Hendijani, 1402). Since there is limited information about how small companies active in the food industry faced the pandemic, this research aims to identify the crisis management strategies of small businesses in Iran active in the food industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.
1) What are the crisis strategies of small food businesses in Iran during the pandemic? 2) What are the resilience strategies of small food businesses in Iran during the pandemic? 3) What are the survival strategies of small food businesses in Iran during the pandemic? 

Methods
This is a descriptive survey mixed-method study (qualitative/quantitative). In the qualitative phase, participants were 15 experts who were selected using purposive and snowball sampling methods. They underwent interviews, which continued until theoretical data saturation was reached. Lincoln and Guba (1985) criteria (credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability) were used to assess the trustworthiness of the data in the qualitative phase. In the quantitative phase, participants were 314 heads, supervisors and senior and middle-level managers of organizations active in the food industry in Iran. They were selected using a cluster random sampling method from different parts of Iran. They completed a researcher-made questionnaire to identify the crisis management strategies of small food businesses in Iran in three domains: Crisis (12 items), resilience (10 items), and survival (17 items). The questionnaire had acceptable content and construct validity. Cronbach’s α for crisis, resilience and survival domains were 0.79, 0.78 and 0.79, respectively.

Results
Ten crisis management strategies in three general categories of “crisis strategies”, “survival strategies”, and “resilience strategies” were identified. Crisis strategies included “reduction”, “integration and communication”, and “development and endurance”. Survival strategies were “chasing after competitors”, “infrastructure preparation”, and “strategic planning and orientation”. Resilience strategies were “work-related”, “financial”, “marketing”, and “human resource empowerment” strategies.

Conclusion
Smart crisis management in food industries requires a correct understanding of effective strategies. In this study, ten crisis management strategies used by small food businesses in Iran during the pandemic were identified into three categories of crisis, survival and resilience strategies. Further studies are recommended in other businesses and cities in Iran to compare the results.

Ethical Considerations

Compliance with ethical guidelines
In this study, all ethical principles were observed. Since no experiments on animal or human samples were conducted, no ethical code was obtained

Funding
This article was extracted from the master’s thesis of Arash Dabiri in Business Management at Faculty of Management and Financial Sciences, Khatam University. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for profit sectors.

Authors' contributions
All authors equally contributed to the preparation of this article.

Conflicts of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.